Changan has accelerated its transformation into an intelligent low-carbon travel technology company.
Text | Du Qiaomei
"We will further optimize the strategy and positioning of Changan Automobile's brands and make a comprehensive transformation to electrification and electrification." Zhu Huarong, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Changan Automobile, officially released the digital pure electric brand "Changan Deep Blue" at the Changan Automobile Global Partnership Conference on April 13, accelerating the transformation to an intelligent low-carbon travel technology company.
It is reported that the deep blue brand is a new digital pure electric brand under Changan Automobile, and Changan New Energy will become the operation platform of the Changan deep blue brand. The Deep Blue brand is mainly for Z generation new energy users, and there are currently five models in the planned model, in addition to the first model C385 launched during the year, the C673 will also be released during the year.
In addition to the release of the new Deep Blue brand, Changan Automobile also announced the new product plan of Changan Automobile Group in 2022, the annual sales target and the long-term brand plan for 2025.
According to reports, Changan Automobile will launch 36 new products and 19 independent brands during the year, including 9 new products, 10 new products and 8 new energy products. Based on the launch of new products, Changan Automobile plans to produce and sell 2.45 million units in 2022, an increase of 6.5% year-on-year, and its own brand production and sales of 1.857 million units, an increase of 5.9% year-on-year, with a market share of 11%.
According to the plan, by 2025, Changan Automobile aims to achieve a total sales volume of 4 million vehicles. Among them, the independent sector has 3 million vehicles, and the sales of new energy have reached 1.05 million vehicles, accounting for 35%, achieving the goal of domestic first-class; by 2030, The sales volume of Changan Automobile will reach 5.5 million, of which 4.5 million will be in the autonomous sector, and the sales of new energy will reach 2.7 million, accounting for 60%, reaching the international leading level.
In overseas markets, Changan Automobile plans to build 2-3 overseas manufacturing bases by 2025, complete the production capacity layout of the first phase of the global automotive market, and establish European headquarters and North American headquarters in The European and North American markets in a timely manner, so as to promote the full entry of products into the European and North American automotive markets.
It is worth noting that after Great Wall Motor announced its goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2045 in June last year, Changan Automobile also announced that it will achieve "carbon peaking" in 2027 and "carbon neutrality" in 2045.
Invest 80 billion yuan to make up for the shortcomings
"Under the traction of national strategies such as double carbon strategy, scientific and technological innovation, and green development, the transformation of the automobile industry has entered the fast lane, and the transformation of the automobile industry will usher in a new industrial economy, and the industrial chain will face restructuring." As intelligent new energy vehicles have begun to truly enter a new stage of market-oriented development, the automotive industry pattern is being reconstructed. Zhu Huarong pointed out that in the future, new cars will further change people's way of life, and the automobile industry will not only play a more prominent role as an economic pillar, but also deeply participate in social governance, affecting political security and even military security.
At the same time, Chinese brands already have the best opportunity to change lanes in parallel or even overtake. Whether it is in the electrification and intelligent transformation, or in the exploration of emerging business models, Chinese car brands are no longer bystanders or simple followers, but have become runners and even leaders.
The data shows that in 2021, the market share of Chinese brand passenger cars reached 41.9%, exceeding 40% for the first time, while the market share of Chinese brand passenger cars in the first quarter of 2022 further increased to 45.2%. Among them, in the field of new energy, the share of Chinese brand passenger cars has reached 83%, and mainstream Chinese brands have achieved 100% networking and driving assistance.
"Due to the breakthrough of the 'technology group', China's consumption upgrade and China's excellent business environment, Chinese auto brands have reached a critical moment of accumulation. The rapid development of new energy and intelligent networked vehicles has provided a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Chinese auto brands to rise and participate in global competition, and in the next ten years, world-class Chinese brands will be born in the world. In Zhu Huarong's view, with the restructuring of the market, the competition is more intense, and the survival of the fittest accelerates.
"China's auto market has about 96 enterprise groups and more than 130 brands, which is the market with the largest number of auto companies and brands in the world. With the addition of new energy vehicles, driven by industrial change, the industrial elimination race has accelerated. In the past year, there are 85 brands in the traditional fuel vehicle market, 34 brands with monthly sales of less than 1,000 units, and 9 brands have disappeared. It is expected that in the next 3-5 years, 80% of brands will face shutdown and turnaround. Zhu Huarong said that Chinese brands can only survive and develop in the fierce market competition if they conform to the trend of the times, continuously innovate and accelerate transformation.
At present, with the lack of growth of fuel vehicles, accelerating the transformation to new energy has become the consensus of the industry.
"In recent years, the demand for passenger car market has shown a differentiated K-shaped trend, and the proportion of traditional fuel vehicles has continued to decline, accompanied by a continuous increase in the proportion of new energy vehicles, forming a structural growth trend of the domestic car market." Traditional fuel vehicle products are facing greater growth pressure, while the electrification and intelligent social supply chain system of new energy vehicle products is still in the stage of innovation and rise. On April 11, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Association, pointed out.
However, in the field of new energy, although after more than ten years of layout, Changan Automobile does not have an advantage in the field of new energy.
A few days ago, the data released by the Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed that the domestic retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles in March this year was 28.2%. Among its own brands, Changan New Energy sold 15,624 vehicles, lower than BYD, Tesla China, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Chery Automobile, GAC E-An, ranking sixth among domestic manufacturers. In March, the overall retail sales of Changan passenger cars reached 120,000 units, and new energy vehicles accounted for only 13%.
To this end, Changan Automobile has increased its investment to make up for the shortcomings.
According to the plan, by 2025, Changan Automobile will invest more than 80 billion yuan in key areas such as new energy, intelligence, scientific and technological innovation, and digital transformation, and accelerate the construction of core capabilities in the field of transformation. And the total number of R & D personnel reached 20,000 people, including more than 6,000 intelligent and software R & D personnel, more than 5,000 new energy R & D personnel, R & D personnel accounted for about 1/4.
As early as February this year, Changan Automobile announced that the investment plan of the company and its holding subsidiaries in 2022 was about 8.05 billion yuan.
Among them, the fixed asset investment is about 3.246 billion yuan, including the upgrading of new energy special production capacity, high-end new energy and light vehicle product projects and other continuous construction projects; product upgrading, new product production line construction, high-end new energy products, three electric capacity and channel capacity building and other newly opened projects; light vehicle factory manufacturing capacity improvement, build high-end brands, etc.
The equity investment of about 4.804 billion yuan is mainly used to support independent new energy brands, double upgrade of scale, expand overseas markets, deepen capital relations with partners, create controllable full-stack intelligent capabilities, and continue to layout travel and industrial ecological expansion.
Promote the electrification of all products
According to the latest strategic plan, Changan Automobile has built an electrification promotion architecture and platform system for all products.
Among them, the MPA architecture is compatible with ICE and its electrification products, integrating multi-form, multi-energy, multi-scenario architecture, and has been launched with UNI-V; EPA architecture is a platform architecture for the mainstream electric vehicle market, pure electric series products C385, C673, Changan LUMIN will be released soon; CHN platform is a smart electric vehicle technology platform built by Changan and Huawei, Ningde era; facing the future, Changan Automobile will also build an intelligent electric vehicle architecture SDA.
In the high-end intelligent electric vehicle market, the high-end intelligent electric vehicle brand Avita aggregates the advantages of Changan Automobile, Huawei, and Ningde Era, and is the first high-end intelligent electric vehicle brand equipped with Huawei HI. At present, there are 4 complete vehicle products planned, covering the main market segments of the mid-to-high-end, and the first model Avita 11 will be released in the second quarter of this year.
It is worth noting that on March 29, CATL completed the capital injection of Avita, with a shareholding ratio of 23.99%, officially becoming the second largest shareholder of Avita Technology.
In the mainstream passenger car market, Changan Automobile will launch 21 new products, including 5 of the Changan Deep Blue brand. In addition, in 2022, A total of 5 new products will be launched, including C385EV, C673EV, UNI-KPHEV, UNI-V PHEV, and Auchan Z6-PHEV, and the first mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell car in China will also be unveiled to meet the quality green travel needs of mainstream people.
In the small car market, four new products will be launched in the future, and LUMIN will be launched in 2022 to meet the demand for mobility.
At the same time, Changan Automobile will further optimize the brand strategy and positioning of Changan UNI, Changan Passenger Vehicle, Auchan and Kaicheng, and make a comprehensive transformation to electrification and electrification. In the commercial vehicle market, Changan will launch 6 new products in the future, achieve full coverage of the mainstream bus market by 2025, and launch 2 new platform pickup products.
In addition, in marketing and channel business, Changan Automobile has also opened a new model.
On the one hand, with the acceleration and improvement of UNI sequence products, Zhu Huarong clearly stated at the conference to promote UNI brand operation.
In the industry's view, with the gradual increase in sales of UNI sequence products, the UNI brand has the possibility of independence.
On the other hand, with the impact of direct sales models such as Tesla and Weilai on traditional channels, Changan Automobile will also test the new channel model.
"The new business model of 'unified middle office of the whole group, unified transformation of all channels, unified direct management of all scenarios' will truly land." Zhu Huarong said that in the future, the data of the client, the main engine factory, the consultant and the car machine will be connected, forming a collaborative ability of middle-stage, sharing and service-oriented. Through the direct management of consultants, incentive direct communication, data direct drive, etc., to achieve customer service quality control and grasp of the whole journey.
It is understood that LUMIN is the first product to land a new marketing model, and all products of Chang'an will be promoted in accordance with the new model in the future.
However, the release of the strategy has not directly stimulated the enthusiasm of the secondary market. As of the close of trading on the 13th, Changan Automobile's stock price fell to 10.27 yuan per share, down more than 50% from last year's high.